Hu­man pop­u­la­tion

It’s heart­en­ing to hear of con­ser­va­tion suc­cesses and feel all is not lost (Cloud Nine, Au­gust 2018). But we must not ig­nore the root cause of

prob­lems in the nat­u­ral world, and that is ever-in­creas­ing hu­man num­bers. If we keep tak­ing land or raid­ing its re­sources, there will be nowhere left for wildlife. We are the only species with the means of con­trol­ling our own num­bers. While the idea of dic­tat­ing to a cou­ple how many chil­dren they may have is re­pug­nant, I be­lieve changes in cul­ture (such as re­mov­ing pa­tri­ar­chal at­ti­tudes), ac­cess to ed­u­ca­tion and bet­ter fund­ing for con­tra­cep­tion would help. Su­san Fran­cis, Malvern